What is Writer's Workshop?

The concept of Writer's Workshop was developed by Lucy Calkins and her colleagues at the Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University. It is rooted in the belief that students will become lifelong writers when provided the opportunity to write about their own lives, using a consistent writing process, in authentic ways to foster independence. It is a suitable strategy for all grade levels and direct instruction is provided in the form of a 5-10 minute mini-lesson and then students are given the opportunity to work independently. Each session concludes with the sharing of student work.

Seven Principles that Inform our Teaching and Students' Writing

Structure of the Writer's Workshop


The Mini-Lesson


Planning Sheet

Possible Lessons

Conferencing

The purpose of the conference is to help the student react to his/her own writing so he/she may diagnose their own writing problems and make an attempt to solve them.
Remember to:
  • Listen to the writer
  • Allow the writer to teach you
  • Respond to the content first
  • Handle one problem at a time
  • Avoid asking yes or no questions
  • Keep it short. (Penn Literacy Network, 2011)

The Group Thinking Conference

Document Review

Hints for Successful Conferencing

Resource for Creating a Toolkit for Conferencing

Composing Text - Five Types of Writing by John Collins

Check out this link for a basic overview of the Five Types of Writing according to John Collins. Advantages and disadvantages for each type of writing are provided, as well as ideas for how to use type 1 and type 2 writing across the curriculum.
John Collins Writing.pdf

This link offers some possible focus correction areas (FCA) according to John Collins writing program.
Possible Focus Correction Areas.docx

Mentor Texts

Looking for some good mentor texts to use in your writing instruction? Check out these links for ideas:
Mentor Texts for Interesting Punctuation.doc
Some Mentor Texts for Word Choice.doc
Teaching_leads_with_mentor_texts.pdf
Crafting Beginning.pdf
Crafting Endings.pdf
Crafting Leads.pdf
Crafting Setting.pdf
Crafting Titles.pdf
Crafting Voice.pdf
Crafting with Words.pdf
Creating Characters.pdf